Maintaining Depth

[Mowgli]

It is July 1941 and I am off the Canary Islands. Earlier in the patrol I had been caught on the surface in my type IX without decks awash and at slow speed - normally when within range of aircraft I am at a faster speed for a quicker dive and damn the fuel.

I had taken damage and repaired it and thought no more until I launched an attack on a convoy and proceeded to carry out my normal evasion routines - strongly recommend the GWX manual which explains just how the ASW vessels operate - and almost wound up dead.

With two ASW running around in a circle, I dived to 160 and started to creep along keeping below 100 RPM. Then I was warned about my depth. I had descended to 172 metres.

I was forced to increase speed to get to safer depth but of course the ASW then picked me up again.

I checked my crew and damage page and saw in the last two stern sections blue water in the bilges and so below a certain speed I would gradually sink. What a nightmare the next few hours were.

Increase speed during their attacks and climb and then slowly start to sink again once i fell below 3 knots.

I was preparing to surface and duke it out with tubes bow and stern loaded and crew ready for the deck gun when I finally managed to slip out of the circle of death at 168 metres.

I was straight off to base for repairs and have learnt always to run at decks awash, always keep a decent way on the vessel and to pay more attention to the damage control screen.